Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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170. To ask the Minister for Finance Ireland’s gross national income for the past three years if redomiciled public limited companies would have been excluded; and the amount by which Ireland’s contribution to the EU budget would have been reduced if these redomiciled public limited companies were excluded from the GNI figures for these years. [46758/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Research by  the Central Bank and ESRI in recent years has highlighted the decisions of several large multinational corporations to re-locate their corporate headquarters to Ireland since 2008. Typically, this does not involve the shift of substantive activity to Ireland or liability for tax. However, it does mean that corporate income on worldwide activity is recorded as a credit (an income inflow) on the Irish current account, improving the balance.  These such companies are regularly referred to as re-domiciled PLCs.

Central Statistics Office (CSO) estimates of the net effect on primary income in the current account of the Irish Balance of Payments of these re-domiciled PLCs, is set out in the table below.  These are also the amounts that contribute to Irish net factor income in the National Accounts, and consequently GNI.

The relative level of a Member State's GNI vis-a-vis that of other Member States is the primary determinant of its contribution towards the EU budget. The table below also sets out the upward impact on Ireland's EU  budget contributions.  It is estimated that the impact on Ireland's EU budget contribution for 2013 is of the order of €60 million.

Please note that Irish GNP/GNI statisitics are produced to meet required international standards and that these companies are correctly included in Ireland's National Accounts and Balance of Payments statistics under the standards set by the UN, the IMF, Eurostat and the ECB.  Any estimates of GNP or GNI excluding these companies are not official statistics and have no legal status.